Ranked on a month with a real trip in it — S$2,000 spent abroad alongside normal life back home. Foreign transaction fees aren't in these numbers, and that matters more than the rate does.
Milestacker · Card data checked 27 August 2026 · 8 cards ranked
A trip changes your spending in a specific way: a chunk of it moves into a foreign currency, and the rest of your month — groceries, transport, the usual — keeps going underneath it. That's the basket below: S$2,000 spent overseas inside a S$3,200 month.
One thing worth saying now and repeating later: every card here charges a foreign transaction fee, typically around 3.25%, and it isn't in the numbers below. A slightly better mpd on a card with a worse fee can easily cost you more overall — check the fee, not just the rate.
With that out of the way, here's what actually wins once the caps and minimum spends, where they exist, are applied to a real month abroad.
The month being ranked
S$2,000 foreign in a S$3,200 month
Foreign currency
S$2,000
Dining
S$400
Groceries
S$300
Shopping
S$300
Transport
S$200
Total
S$3,200
A month with a trip in it — foreign spend dominant, with normal local spend continuing underneath it.
Put in your own numbers and this order will probably shuffle — sometimes a lot. That's expected: it just means your spending doesn't look like this month.
The three that earn most
1
Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered Visa Infinite Card
Standard Chartered Visa Infinite Card
Standard Chartered · overseas spend once the S$2,000/cycle threshold is met
Earns
7,680
miles a month
Effective
2.40
mpd, best rate 3
The catch
No monthly cap
This card has an all-or-nothing switch: spend under S$2,000 in a statement cycle and every dollar, local and overseas both, drops to a flat 1 mpd. Clear that S$2,000 and the whole card jumps to its published rates. A real trip clears the threshold easily, which is exactly when this card earns its keep — outside of travel season it's a much weaker pick.
Bank of China · entry-level flat-rate foreign-currency spend
Earns
7,280
miles a month
Effective
2.27
mpd, best rate 2.8
The catch
No monthly cap
No bonus categories, no minimum spend, no monthly cap — just a flat 2.8 mpd on everything in foreign currency, indefinitely. It won't beat a card that's mid-bonus, but it's the simplest card on this page to actually use well, since there's nothing to remember or unlock.
Before you apply. Requires S$30,000 annual income as a Singapore Citizen or PR, or S$60,000 as a foreigner — this planner has no residency question, so it models only the S$30,000 floor and will show this card to a foreigner earning less than S$60,000.
The foreign-currency bonus here is uncapped, which is unusual on this page and is why it holds up on a big trip where the capped cards have long since run out. The gate is a S$800 monthly minimum, and it's the forgiving kind: it's measured against everything you put on the card, so your ordinary spending back home helps clear it rather than being wasted. Air tickets get the same rate on a separate allowance.
The foreign transaction fee doesn't appear anywhere in these numbers, and on a S$2,000 trip it can easily outweigh the gap between the top few cards. Check the fee before you check the rate.
What trips people up
The fee isn't in this ranking
Every card here charges roughly 3.25% on foreign-currency spend, and it isn't reflected in the miles figures below. A card earning slightly fewer miles but charging a lower fee can still come out ahead in real terms.
Some bonuses are all-or-nothing
A couple of these cards don't taper — miss their minimum spend for the cycle and the whole card, not just the overseas portion, drops to a much lower flat rate. Worth checking before a light month, not after.
Local spend doesn't ride along for free
A card's overseas bonus and its local bonus are often two completely separate buckets with their own caps. Spending well abroad doesn't automatically mean the rest of your month is earning well too.
Flat-rate cards need the least attention
A few cards here have no gate and no cap at all — just a fixed rate on every foreign transaction. They rarely top the ranking, but they're the cards you genuinely never have to think about.
Why a trip changes which card wins
Most of the cards that dominate everyday rankings — the ones bonusing dining or online shopping — do very little for you once you leave Singapore, because their bonus categories are usually built around local merchant types that don't work the same way abroad.
Cards built around foreign-currency spend work differently: the bonus is on the currency itself, not the category, so it applies however you're actually spending on a trip — meals, transport, shopping, all of it.
What this ranking leaves out
Foreign transaction fees are the big one, covered above. Annual fees and sign-up bonuses are excluded too — several of these cards carry meaningful minimum-income requirements and non-waivable annual fees, which matter a lot if you're only travelling once or twice a year.
Airport lounge access, travel insurance and other card perks aren't factored in either, even though they're often a real part of why people pick a travel-focused card in the first place.
Questions people actually ask
Does the foreign transaction fee wipe out the extra miles?
It can, depending on the two cards you're comparing. A card earning 0.6 mpd more than another but charging a materially higher fee can lose out overall — the only way to know for sure is to check both numbers together for the specific cards you're weighing up.
What happens to this ranking outside of a travel month?
It would look quite different. Several of these cards need meaningful spend, or an overseas-specific bonus, to perform well — without a trip in the picture, plainer flat-rate cards for everyday spend usually win instead.
Can one card work well for both everyday spend and travel?
A few come close, but rarely as the very best at both — a card tuned for a narrow local bonus like dining or online shopping usually isn't the same one that rewards foreign currency best. Holding one of each and routing spend between them is a common approach.
How up to date is this?
These numbers come from the same data our planner uses, checked against a dated source for every rate that matters. Card terms shift a few times a year, and the ones with minimum-spend thresholds change more often than most, so confirm with the bank before you apply.
How these numbers are worked out
Every rate is quoted in KrisFlyer miles, with each card's points-to-miles conversion already applied. That makes cards comparable to each other, but it means these figures sit below the headline rates issuers and review sites publish, which are usually quoted in the card's own points or at its best transfer partner.
The ranking is produced by running the same engine the planner uses, with one card held and the basket above as the month's spend. Monthly bonus caps, minimum-spend gates and category exclusions are all applied, so a card whose bonus runs out halfway through the month ranks on what it actually earned.
Not included: annual fees, foreign transaction fees, sign-up bonuses, and any relationship tier you have to hold a balance to unlock. Card terms change often — confirm with the bank before applying. Full disclaimer.
This ranking used a made-up month. Yours is different.
Put in your real numbers and Milestacker will show you which card — from the ones you already have, plus whatever you're missing — actually earns you the most. Free, no login, nothing leaves your browser.
